Gymnastics: Tumbleweeds wrap up season at regionals

The Tumbleweeds boys' gymnastics team wrapped up a successful season recently with a strong showing at the USA Gymnastics Region 1 Championships in Chandler, Ariz.

Malik DePasquale, competing in the 12-18 boys Level 6 class, took third in the all-around competition, tying for first on the high bar, taking second on the floor exercise, taking fourth on the vault and tying for ninth on the rings.

His division consisted of 42 other athletes from Nevada, Arizona and California.

Overall, Tumbleweeds had four upper-level gymnasts qualify for regionals this season.

DePasquale helped lead Team Nevada (all regional qualifiers compete for the state they are from) to a first-place finish despite going up against teams with much larger pools to draw from.

"When you get to regionals, pretty much you have these state teams that take the top athletes from the respective state championships," Tumbleweeds boys' coach Tony Parodi said. "Some areas, like Arizona or Southern California are drawing from a much deeper pool than we are in Nevada, so it was good to see our state do so well."

Mason Parodi tied for 26th in the all-around and took seventh in the vault in the 11 level 6 class, Cole Petrosky tied for 20th in the vault out of a field of 50 in the 8 level 5 class and Branden Basche took ninth in the parallel bars and 26th in the all-around in the 10 level 5 group.

DePasquale won the Nevada State Championship in the all-around, the floor and the vault at the state meet in Reno in March.

Basche took second in his class after finishing second in each event except for a third-place finish on the rings.

Petrosky tied for third in the all-around, Parodi was fifth in the all-around of his class and Keaton Peters took fourth in the 12-18 level 5 class.

A trio of Level 4 athletes also had solid showings at the state meet as Mowgli McKeon tied for fourth and took second on the high bar. Zennon Chatwin took fourth on the rings and the vault and Jarod Pieller won a state championship on the vault.